DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything but the original characters that were created for this story. Everything else that is even remotely related to the Fable series belongs to their respectable owners.
With that said, here is my first Fable fanfic! Please, give me tips and suggestions. They help a lot! Thank, guys (and girls)!
Prologue
It has been twenty-one years since the New Hero King (aka the Hero of Brightwall) led a glorious revolution against his tyrannical brother. It has been twenty years since he led the Kingdom of Albion against the Crawler and wiped the Darkness from the face of the earth. It has been twenty years since he quelled a new wave of revolutionaries inspired by General Solomon Turner, the former commander of the Royal Army.
After these numerous threats were eliminated, the Kingdom of Albion flourished under the reign of their benevolent monarch. The people were given freedoms and human rights that they could never have even dreamed of before. The New Hero King had ordered Professor Ernest Faraday's Clockwork Island destroyed in order to "prevent mankind from becoming too technologically advanced for its own good". Yet Albion's Industrial Revolution continued to progress. The Royal Army had recovered from its state of instability during the reign of King Logan and the war against the Crawler. Under the guidance of the New Hero King, it was finally restored to its former glory. Soldiers were now equipped with better training and gear. New generals were appointed, and military corruption became highly uncommon.
And the royal family itself continued to prosper. Just one month after the Crawler's defeat, the beloved wife of the New Hero King, Queen Annabella, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The newborn princess was named Adelia.
Everything was peaceful. Albion seemed to have been finally freed of the terrifying threats that constantly endangered its existence for hundreds if years.
But this new era of peace would quickly be shattered.
Six years ago, a trained assassin attempted to eliminate the New Hero King under the order of the totalitarian ruler of Samarkand, Kadar Al-Iblis. While the assassination attempt was a failure, Samarkand's assault on the Kingdom of Albion was not over. Just two days after the assassination attempt, a small group of Samarkand's soldiers set off dozens of explosive charges on Auroran soil. The attack nearly destroyed Albion's military fort in Shifting Sands and took the lives of many brave soldiers who had been stationed there. The surviving soldiers retreated into the City of Aurora where they gathered reinforcements and ventured back to the fort. While they did not find any enemies there, the fort had been heavily damaged by the explosives, and the corpses of the fallen soldiers now were scattered across the area. Samarkand's assaults were acts of war. And despite numerous attempts at peace, Samarkand relentlessly continued with its deadly attacks on Aurora.
In response, the New Hero King launched a massive offensive against Samarkand. Albion's soldiers marched over Aurora's western mountains and across the rocky border of Samarkand itself. They raided numerous towns and villages and slaughtered every man, woman, and child who dared to resist them. The infamous War in the West had begun. Yet Samarkand's soldiers proved themselves to be far more powerful than the Hero of Brightwall had expected. They were heavily armed and had the home-field advantage. They continued to use brutal guerilla tactics against the Albion Royal Army, slowly pushing Albion's forces back.
The War in the West has continued to this day — six years after Samarkand's attack on Aurora. Albion's soldiers have been pressed all the way back to Samarkand's eastern border. Due to war circumstances, military corruption has become quite common once again. And the civilians of both Albion and Aurora are being heavily taxed in order to cover war expenses. Civil unrest has intensified over the last six years, and the social stability of the Kingdom is slowly collapsing.
But while the Kingdom of Albion is focused primarily on the War in the West, an ancient threat is making its gruesome return to the world. And it may be too great for even the all-powerful Hero King to handle.